2. Society and the Self in Early Piyyut

Michael Swartz, in ‘Society and the Self in Early Piyyut’, takes us on a textual journey in the company of some early liturgical authors from the Byzantine period whose work was probably recited in the synagogues of Palestine and other places before audiences that were not exclusively rabbinic. Through the analysis of selected piyyutim, Swartz shows that these liturgical poems help us better understand ideological frameworks and social structures of the Late Antique Jewish Palestinian society. These piyyutim, whose authors are generally known (unlike most other Jewish literary production from the period), complicate our vision of the Jewish society and the structures that held it together.